The Pursuit of God by Tozer - Reflections (19)

 

 

Let’s note two historical elements in the Corinthian church as we continue to ponder 2 Corinthians chapters 8 and 9. The first is that there were divisions based on affinity with different leaders, this was not of the leaders’ doing but rather grounded in the pride and egos of the Corinthians. “I am of Paul,” and “I of Apollos,” and “I of Cephas,” and “I of Christ” (1 Cor. 1:23). The second is that there was an economic division which manifested itself in their gatherings.

 

When the Corinthians gathered to worship and celebrate the Lord’s Supper, people with money brought their own food and drink to enjoy beforehand in the presence of those who had nothing to eat! “What! Do you not have houses in which to eat and drink? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing?” (1 Cor. 11:22).

 

There was a toxic element in the ethos of the Corinthian church that fostered division, ego, and selfishness, a division opposed to the unity of the Body of Christ as set forth in 1 Corinthians Chapter 12. As we think about this, perhaps we can understand why the Corinthians are lagging behind the Thessalonians in collecting funds to help the distressed people in Judea. After all, if the Corinthians don’t have care and concern for one another in their own city, why should they have compassion on strangers in another land? If some Corinthians are so hardhearted as to be able to eat and drink in front of others who have nothing, why should they have concern for people they don’t even know? If we can’t love the people we see, it isn’t likely we will love people we can’t see. If we don’t have compassion on those we see in need, we probably won’t have compassion on people whose needs we can’t see.

 

Do we see ourselves as modern-day Corinthians?

 

While we may not have congregations in which some eat while others go without (there are likely exceptions to this), do we have cities and towns in which some in the Church eat and drink while others in the Church go hungry? Do we have some congregations with plenty to eat, and other congregations struggling to purchase food and make ends meet?

 

For you see, in any given city, in any given town, there is only one Church, one Body, one Temple, and if the “least of these” goes without food or clothing or shelter then Christ goes without food or clothing or shelter (Matthew 25:31 – 46).

 

If we are honest with ourselves before one another and before God, we have many barriers between us and obedience to 2 Corinthians chapters 8 and 9.

 

“As it is written, He who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little had no lack” (2 Cor. 8:15). This is a quote from Exodus 16:18 regarding the manna which God provided for Israel in the Wilderness. God made provision for His People in Exodus, and Paul is saying that God is also making provision for His People in the first century. In other words, God gives to us as His People and we are to ensure that there is equality in provision (2 Cor. 8:13 – 14). If we know the blessedness of possessing nothing this is not much of a problem, but if we don’t, obedience seems impossible.

 

I think even within congregations we dare not seriously discuss these things, and one of the reasons is that we probably don’t really trust each other. For example, if one of us were to lose our job and face financial peril, do we really think that others would step in and help us? If one of us lost our spouse and we were alone in old age without family, what is the likelihood that our congregation would truly help us?

 

In some societies people take care of one another. In some cultures people don’t stress over being alone because they will never be alone. This is not the case in the United States or in congregations within the United States. Do we have the courage to ponder and discuss these things? Probably not, there is too much risk. We are slaves to money and possessions and to “mine, mine, mine.”

 

There is yet another challenge beyond the hurdle of “equality,” and that is nationalism. Paul is asking the Corinthians to cross cultural, linguistic, ethnic, and national boundaries in their giving, in their obedience to the Biblical notion of equality within the Body of Christ. Actually, he is and he isn’t. In an obvious and natural sense Paul is asking the Corinthians to cross these boundaries, yet in another sense he isn’t.

 

You see dear friend, if we realize that the Body of Christ is universal and transcendent, then there are no national or ethnic or social or language barriers and boundaries – for we are all truly One People in Christ. The world may have national boundaries, the Church must not have such lines of separation – shall we take a sword and dismember Christ?

 

This idea is, of course, a threat to the kingdoms of the world which thrive on war and aggression and subjugation and manipulation.  

 

Perhaps 2 Corinthians chapters 8 and 9 shine the light on whether we are possessed by things and money as no other extended passage in the Bible. Perhaps it is an impossible passage to teach and talk about. Perhaps it is an impossible passage, at least in the United States, to discuss. Perhaps we have so deeply sunk into “me” and “mine” that there is no way out of the morass.

 

Isn’t it better to admit we have a problem and seek ways, by God’s grace, to learn some measure of obedience, than to pretend these chapters don’t exist? Than to gloss over them? Also, it is far better to acknowledge the challenge than to attempt to justify our actions by conjuring up religious and practical reasons that justify our disobedient attitudes and actions…as we are prone to do.

 

These chapters are indeed a challenge for me, and I hope they are a challenge for you.

 

Are we experiencing what Tozer terms, “The blessedness of possessing nothing”?

The Pursuit of God by Tozer – Reflections (18a)

  

 

As I ponder 2 Corinthians chapters 8 and 9, I see an unfolding richness in Christ, gems here and there, beauty, challenge…so much. Perhaps, by His grace, I’ll be able to return at some time and write extended reflections. For now, let’s consider how this passage might challenge our attitude toward possessions, toward the question of who owns the things we have, including our money.

 

The Christians in Judea are poor and need financial help. In response to this Paul has asked Christians in Galatia (a region of modern-day Turkey), Macedonia, and Greece to provide assistance to their brothers and sisters in Judea. (Galatians 2:10; Romans 15:25 – 28; Acts 19:21; 24:17; 1 Corinthians 16:1 – 6.)

 

In 2 Corinthians 8:1 – 5, Paul points out that the Macedonians, even though they themselves were in “extreme poverty,” begged Paul to be allowed to send money to their brothers and sisters in Judea. This is in contrast to the Corinthians who have been lacking in gathering financial assistance for the Judean churches. Corinth was an economic and commercial center, a financial powerhouse; so we have a situation where those who had little were giving much and those who had much were, at least at this point, giving little.

 

The Thessalonians had an affinity with the Judean Christians, not only with respect to straightened financial circumstances, but also with respect to suffering for Jesus. “For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, for you also endured the same suffering at the hands of your own countrymen, even as they did from the Jews, who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out” (1 Thess. 2:14 – 15).

 

It is often the case that those with little share more of what they have than those who have much. Over the years I’ve seen survey after survey that indicates that Americans in low-income regions give a greater portion of their financial resources than those in affluent areas. My own observations have validated this as have conversations with social workers and pastors.  

 

After providing the Thessalonians as an example of sacrificial giving, Paul then provides the Greatest Example. “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich” (2 Cor. 8:9).

 

Now we come to a passage that I just don’t think we can very well teach, but you be the judge.

 

“For this is not for the ease of others and for your affliction, but by way of equality – at this present time your abundance being a supply for their need, so that their abundance also may become a supply for your need, that there may be equality; as it is written, He who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little had no lack” (2 Cor. 8:13 – 15).

 

There are at least two hurdles for us in the United States with this passage. They are both significant.

 

The first hurdle is the word “equality,” We are usually fine with the ideal of equality, after all our nation is built on the words, “All men are created equal.” However, since those words were first penned, we have engaged in never-ceasing internal and external conflict over just how that ideal should be expressed. This conflict has employed bullets and police dogs and economic and political and cultural weaponry and there is no end in sight. Truly, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God…as has any true national notion of all men and women and children being created equal. Well, I suppose all nations need myths in order to survive – if only we would be honest about it (more on this below).

 

Now for those of us who want to know what the real meaning of the word “equality” is in the Greek that Paul used, here is the answer, an answer that may surprise some of us, disappoint some of us, challenge some of us, and hopefully encourage some of us. Drum roll please…the actual meaning of the Greek word that is translated “equality” into English is…EQUALITY!

 

As the article in Kittel (TDNT, Vol. III, page 343ff) discusses, equality was part of the fabric of ancient Greek philosophy and basic to Greek society. It is also embedded in the fabric of the New Testament within various contexts and is connected with righteousness. We cannot have righteousness without equality.

 

Now then, it is one thing to have equality in terms of opportunity (as mythical as that may be), and equality in terms of casting a vote on election day (though in our heart of hearts many of us will do anything to win), or equality in terms of education or access to housing or healthcare (all of which we excel in giving lip service to); most of us will tolerate to some degree superficial discussion about these things, however, the ONE THING most of us draw the line at, the one place we will most certainly erect barbed wire fencing, is when it comes to our money, most of us will not tolerate the use of the word “equality” and “money” in the same sentence.

 

(And really, isn’t this why we disagree on housing and education and healthcare? If these things didn’t cost anything we’d be all for equality…or at least more for it than we are right now. We have no problem with Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos or Warren Buffett helping others with healthcare, just don’t ask us to participate.)

 

One of the ways we preempt discussion about financial equality, and therefore one of the ways we ensure that 2 Corinthians chapters 8 and 9 will not (as a rule) be fairly preached, is by using the canards “communism” and “socialism” at any suggestion of economic equality. “Socialism” is our preferred canard at present, and by it we usually mean atheistic Marxism – we dare others to use the term “equality” because if they do we will smear them as Marxists and therefore un-American.

 

Let’s note that Paul is writing to the Church of Jesus Christ, he is not promulgating an economic system for nations, though nations may learn from his teaching, but he is teaching the Body of Christ how it ought to view its economic resources; the Holy Spirit is speaking to congregations, marriages, families, and individuals. As Tozer writes in our chapter, this is about the blessedness of possessing nothing.

 

I am amused at how many pastors and teachers will look at the common fund in Acts 2:43 – 45 and 4:32 – 37 (“there was not a needy person among them” 4:34) and say, “That was for those people in that place at that time, it is not meant for us today,” and at the same time gloss over the teaching of 2 Corinthians chapters 8 and 9, teaching which is clearly addressed to the Body of Christ across national and ethnic and economic boundaries, teaching having to do with our core identity in Christ and in one another. Why can’t we be honest and just remove these chapters from our Bibles?

 

As you ponder 2 Corinthians 8:13 – 15 in its context, what does this look like in your congregation? Your community? Your denomination? In the professing church in the United States?

 

I would much rather see us teach this and admit that we aren’t going to obey it, than ignore it.

 

It is as if there is a gag order on these chapters. It reminds me of a rule in the U.S. Congress prior to our Civil War, you were not allowed to discuss slavery. Isn’t that nuts? The burning issue of the time and congressmen and senators couldn’t talk about it; it was deemed too inflammatory and threatening.

 

Most of us don’t dare teach 2 Corinthians chapters 8 and 9 because what is mine is mine and if you use the word “equality” with regard to money I’ll call you a socialist and we know that is anti-American and therefore must be anti-Christian.

 

Paul must not have been a Christian.

 

There is more to explore here, but this post is now long enough so we will return to it, the Lord willing, in the next post in this series.

 

The is a reason Tozer made this the second chapter in The Pursuit of God, for where our treasure is, there our hearts will be also (Matthew 6:19 – 21).

 

Personally, I’d just like us to be honest about this, rather than seek to justify ourselves and our attitudes towards money and possessions. As Tozer says, we must make no attempt to excuse ourselves, either in our own eyes or before the Lord (page 29).

 

 

The Pursuit of God by Tozer - Reflections (18)

 

 

As I pondered how to conclude our reflections on Chapter Two, The Blessedness of Possessing Nothing, my thoughts were drawn to 2 Corinthians chapters 8 and 9. I have never heard these chapters fairly preached or taught, and I don’t expect to in my lifetime. Yes, I have heard preachers cherry pick them when speaking on “stewardship,” for “God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Cor. 9:7) is too good to pass up – but this is really crass manipulation of the passage for it rips it out of context and spares us the challenge of obedience.

 

These two chapters have the potential to expose our hearts regarding possessions, regarding what Tozer terms, “my and mine,” more than any other passage in the Bible. They have the potential not only to do this to us as individuals, but also as marriages, as families, as congregations, as denominations, and as various institutions (such as parachurch ministries and seminaries).

 

In this passage the Holy Spirit, through the apostle Paul, calls us not just to a single act of obedience, but to a way of life – and it is in confronting this way of life that our attitude toward possessions is especially revealed.

Saturday, July 5: I intended to complete this post today in order to conclude Chapter Two, however, we have a tropical storm moving into our area and it is uncertain what to expect. This means that I’ve spent a couple of hours already (it’s 7:32 AM right now) preparing for the storm – bringing umbrellas inside, making room in the garage for the car (ha!), and otherwise preparing for what will hopefully be a couple of days of uneventful weather. We have learned over the years, whether with New England blizzards or Virginia and South Carolina tropical storms and hurricanes, that it is wise to prepare for the worst and pray for the best.

 

So I am going to post what I’ve written above and ask you to read and ponder 2 Corinthians chapters 8 and 9. What is Paul saying about how we should live in Christ toward one another? What should our attitude toward possessions be – as seen in these chapters? What are the challenges in these chapters? That is, what are the barriers in thinking and living like they portray?

 

I’ll circle back to this passage in my next post and complete what I began in this post, the Lord willing.

 

Right now I still have other things to do regarding the storm.

 

Much love,

 

Bob

 

The Pursuit of God by Tozer - Reflections (17)

 

“The Christian who is alive enough to know himself even slightly will recognize the symptoms of this possession malady, and will grieve to find them in his own heart. If the longing after God is strong enough within him, he will want to do something about the matter. Now, what should he do?” (pages 28 – 29).

 

“First of all, he should put away all defense and make no attempt to excuse himself either in his own eyes or before the Lord. Whoever defends himself will have himself for his defense, and he will have no other. But let him come defenseless before the Lord and he will have for his defender no less than God Himself. Let the inquiring Christian trample under foot every slippery trick of his deceitful heart and insist upon frank and open relations with the Lord” (page 29).

 

Our Father and Lord Jesus want the best for us, and that includes setting us free from being possessed by possessions, whether material or otherwise. As Tozer writes on page 22, “There is within the human heart a tough, fibrous root of a fallen life whose nature is to possess, always to possess” (italics mine). As we’ve pointed out, what this looks like in my life is probably not what it looks like in your life, our calling is not to evaluate one another, it is to stand before Jesus Christ and ask Him to search us and try us, to shine His Light upon us, and to ensure that only God is worshipped within the Holy of Holies of our hearts and souls.

 

I wonder how it is possible to have this conversation in the world and church in which we live, it is like speaking a different language; more than that, it is speaking a different language within an alien culture, one with different values than our own.

 

We exalt worldly success within the professing church, we talk about money as a central benchmark of our congregational health (and we are adept at justifying this focus), we justify hoarding money while neighbors are hungry and homeless, we are more interested in our children and grandchildren having well – paying jobs than knowing Jesus and living godly lives, we know the composition of our 401ks but not our Bibles, we are more prone to speak to one another of the financial markets at church than of how Jesus is revealing Himself to us.

 

We forget, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich” (2 Cor. 8:9).

 

I find it hard to conceive that in a society and a church that is obsessed with money and things and power and pleasure that we can even begin to approach the problem of the insidious idols within us; all the more reason to cry out to Jesus for mercy and help.

 

For sure, as Tozer writes, we must put away all defense and excuses – and this goes against our grain, for again we live in a church and society that tells us we deserve the best, that we deserve all that we can obtain. We can’t do this without the grace of Jesus, and we need His grace every day to do it.  Only the Holy Spirit can enable us to “trample under foot every slippery trick” of our deceitful hearts.

 

What a challenge this can be in the face of churches and so-called ministries that exalt material prosperity, that teach us to avoid the Christ of the Cross and laying down our lives for Christ and others.

 

Tozer writes that we ought to, “Insist that God accept his [our] all, that He take things out of his [our] heart and Himself reign there in power” (page 29). We ought not to be among those “Who coddle their feelings and insist upon caution in their dealings with God” (page 29).

 

Will we take the walk of Abraham with our Isaac up Mt. Moriah and offer to God that which is most precious to us? Will we say with David, “Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth” (Psalm 73:25)? Will we allow God to reorient our hearts and minds from the earthly and self-centered to the heavenly and Christ-centered?

 

Tozer says that we must experience this work of God in our hearts, that it is not a truth to be intellectually learned. He writes that we must “live through Abraham’s hard and bitter experiences if we would know the blessedness which follows them. The ancient curse will not go out painlessly…” (page 29).

 

I have never preached this nor taught it, and this shames me. O yes, I have preached the Way of the Cross, I have taught the intercessory life, I have quoted Mark 8:34 – 38 times without number. But O how I wish I could go back and lead my people with Abraham up Mt. Moriah, how I wish I could ask each one of us to bring our Isaacs to offer to God, how I wish we could ponder each step, one foot in front of the other, allowing the Holy Spirit to speak to us and to work deep within our hearts and souls.

 

Even now I am not sure I understand the depth of what Tozer is writing, I have been in the religious opium den too long. What was once familiar to me was lost in layer after layer of pragmatic American religion. Have we not become like Peter in trying to shield Jesus from the Cross, from His calling and destiny and glory? (Matthew 16:21 – 23). And let’s not forget, one minute Peter confessed Jesus, the next he played the role of Satan!

 

Do we not strive to shield one another from Mt. Moriah, from the Cross of Christ?

 

“If we would indeed know God in growing intimacy, we must go this way of renunciation. And if we are set upon the pursuit of God, He will sooner or later bring us to this test” (page 30).

 

Does this make any sense to you?

 

The Lord willing, we’ll take one more look at this before we conclude Tozer’s chapter on, The Blessedness of Possessing Nothing.

 

What might the “way of renunciation” look like in our lives?

 

 

The Pursuit of God by Tozer - Reflections (16)

 

“Our gifts and talents should also be turned over to Him. They should be recognized for what they are, God’s loan to us, and should never be considered in any sense our own” (page 28).

 

The first “gift assessment” I saw was around 1990. I’m sure they existed before then, but the first one I saw was when a friend brought one to me that his church was doing. This particular assessment required that the participants have people who knew them fill out portions of the assessment based on their knowledge of the participants. I dutifully and politely (unusual for me I suppose) filled out the request form, but I did so with inner hesitation.

 

Since then, I have seen many forms of gift assessment, and I have yet to see one with which I am comfortable – not one. In fact, the more sophisticated they become, the more I am not only uncomfortable, but the more I fear in terms of a descent into Gnosticism and beyond (more on this below).

 

The most critical element which these gift assessments lack is the Cross of Christ. 

 

As our chapter on possessing nothing emphasizes, all that we have must go to and through the Cross, it must be offered up to God. Without having been to the Cross, and remaining in the Cross, our gifts and talents are poison for they are rooted in self-reliance and not in Jesus Christ. When Jesus says, “Apart from Me you can do nothing,” He includes our talents and gifts. This means, in part, that our greatest gifts are also our greatest weaknesses and dangers, for if we rely on ourselves and our own abilities we will live according to the flesh, the natural – and our fruit will be death, death to ourselves and death to others.

 

Our fruit may not look like death, it may look, “Good for food, be a delight to the eyes, and desirable to make one wise” (Genesis 3:6), but it will most certainly result in death.

 

Then we have the assumption that God wants us to primarily use our “natural” gifts and talents and to not venture into areas in which we are not naturally gifted. This thinking is carnal and not spiritual; it rests on the natural and not on the Holy Spirit – it requires no dependence on God. We ought not to make such assumptions.

 

Moses argued with God that he was not, “eloquent,” and that he was “slow of speech and slow of tongue” (Ex. 4:10). Paul writes to the Corinthians, “I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom…” (1 Cor. 2:3 – 4). Jeremiah protested to God, “I do not know how to speak, because I am a youth” (Jer. 1:6).

 

God calls people into areas of service for which they are not naturally gifted; let us not be so foolish as to look at the outward, or to evaluate people and church life the way the world does, Christ Jesus is the Head of the Body. The Word of God may very well come to us through the most shy and soft-spoken man or woman in our midst, but we will never know if our eyes are focused on the natural and not on the Cross of Christ. We are too easily impressed.

 

It is easy for us to forget that God’s strength is “made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9). We tend to forget that it is the Holy Spirit who works in us, the Body of Christ, as He wills, not as we will (1 Cor. 12:11). Our presumptions are dangerous. Just because we can do things does not mean that we should do things, things done in the “natural” are best left undone. If it is not of Christ Jesus, if it is not through the Cross, then we had better leave the task alone.

 

One of our problems today is that we have built edifices ourselves rather than in Christ, ignoring Psalm 127:1, “Unless the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; unless the LORD guards the city, the watchman keeps awake in vain.” What we have built ourselves we must maintain ourselves, what we have artificially built, must be artificially maintained.

 

Then we have groups and ministries that were born of the Spriit, but at some point veered into the flesh or worse (Galatians 3:3; also see Revelation chapters 2 and 3). Naturally we justify our actions and thinking, for we must grow, we must acquire more, we must be bigger and better each year. We end up riding a tiger which will devour us if we dismount.

 

Let’s recall that Isaac was a child of promise. In the “natural,” Abraham and Sarah could not produce Isaac, they were old, they were just too old. When Isaac was given to them, he was not given to become an idol, he was not given so that Abraham and Sarah should center their lives around him, he was not given to be taken into the inner most shrine of the heart – the place where only God is to dwell.

 

So with us, so with our churches, what God gives us is never ours to possess, it is given to us in trust and we are to be good stewards of God’s gifts and resources – we are to own nothing – how can we own anything if we are owned by Jesus Christ? The words “my” and “mine” ought to never enter our minds, for all is to be surrendered to the Cross, and all is to remain in the Cross.

 

Before we conclude this reflection (in our next reflection we’ll ponder what Tozer writes about how we can respond to Christ in obedience), I’ll comment on gift assessments which include personality and temperament analysis (more and more gift assessments now include this element).

 

Only God truly knows us (Psalm 139) and only the Holy Spirit can reveal what we need to know about ourselves (Psalm 19:11 – 14; Psalm 139:23 – 24; Hebrews 4:12 – 16; Philippians 2:12 - 13). Preoccupation with self-analysis is never-ending and leads downward and downward into Gnostic darkness. The great question of life is not, “Who am I?” but rather, “Who is Jesus Christ?”

 

Our lives are transformed into goodness, truth, and beauty as we behold Jesus Christ, not as we ponder our emotional and psychological navels (1 John 3:1 – 3; 2 Cor. 3:17 – 18; Rom. 12:1 – 2). We are not capable of defining ourselves, of truly understanding ourselves, only our Creator – Father truly knows us. (I have written more extensively about this on Mind on Fire when exploring John 15:1ff.)

 

I have seen people become trapped within psychological assessments, adopting them as core identities and using them to pigeonhole others. I have witnessed people obsessed with these assessments. Some of these assessments have their roots in anti-Christian teaching, and one which is quite popular in some Christian circles has been propagated by a heretical “Christian” teacher who is opposed to the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ.

 

In Christ, we discover our gifts and callings as we live in relationship in the Body of Christ, as we experience daily life with other disciples. Our gifts and callings can change, for sure they ought to mature, we have various seasons of life, and we must always abide in the Vine. The fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, which humanistic assessments offer, leads to death.

 

Because I can hear some readers protesting, I will add that I have used basic assessments before, both in business and in the church, that make no pretense of exploring the “inner person.” People in church tended to make more of them than intended, often confusing them with their identity – I would not do this again. People in business tended to see them as tool to help them understand how they make decisions and communicate, nothing more.

 

We are a supernatural people, living in communion with a supernatural God, let us trust our Lord Jesus in these things as we live in relationship with one another.

 

Let us recall that all must be offered to Christ on the altar of the Cross, including ourselves.

 

Have your gifts and talents been crucified with Christ?

 

Galatians 2:20.

The Pursuit of God by Tozer - Reflections (15)

 

“Now he was a man who possessed nothing. He had concentrated his all in the person of his dear son, and God had taken it from him” (page 27).

 

“I have said that Abraham possessed nothing. Yet was not this poor man rich? Everything he had owned before was his still to enjoy…He had everything, but he possessed nothing. There is the spiritual secret. There is the sweet theology of the heart which can be learned only in the school of renunciation” (page 27).

 

We are generally told that as long as our treasures are “good” that we can set our hearts upon them, that we can make them the center of our lives, that we can bring them into the shrine of our hearts. We make gods of our families, of our children, of our jobs, of our 401ks, of our houses and cars and boats and travel experiences and positions of influence and of hobbies. We can make idols of pretty much anything. Again, my idols are probably not your idols.

 

Consider that John concludes his first letter with, “Little children, guard yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:21).

 

Congregations can have idols, denominations and parachurch ministries can have idols, colleges and seminaries can have idols – idols are insidious. I could write that idols are always knocking at the door of our hearts, but that is not true. More often than not idols are attempting to seduce us, they do not knock, they whisper, they coo, they offer comfort, they stroke our egos, they appeal to what we consider our better selves. They can be pragmatic and they can also be altruistic.

 

But the blessedness of possessing nothing is not really about idols, it is about loving God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength; it is about being conformed to the image of the Firstborn Son, it is about being the sons and daughters of our Father in heaven (Romans 8:29; Matthew 5:43 – 48).

 

In offering Isaac, Abraham was being conformed to the image of our Father, who gave His Only Begotten Son. In Abraham we see our Father, and in Isaac we see the Son. We are called to both, we are called into the fellowship of the One who gives His Son, and into the fellowship of the One who gives Himself according to His Father’s will, for the life of the world.

 

There ought to be only One Light in our lives, One Light in our City, that of the Father and the Lamb (Revelation 21:23).

 

Paul wrote concerning himself and his coworkers that they were, “As poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing all things” (2 Corinthians 6:10).

 

When we experience trials some of us may retain positions and possessions, and others may not. Whatever the case may be, we are called to trust our kind and loving heavenly Father.

 

“I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need” (Philippians 4:12).

 

It seems to me that we tend to play the part of Peter in Matthew 16:21 – 23, we want others to avoid the Cross. In other words, rather than present the call of Jesus in Matthew 16:24 – 26 to take up the cross and deny ourselves, our churches and message are designed to have us avoid the Cross and self-denial and the offering of our Isaacs. We think we know better than Jesus Christ, for we think that if we proclaim what Jesus commands – the Cross and self-denial and faithful witnessing – that people won’t come to church and won’t come back; yet, it was the Gospel of Jesus and the call to discipleship that changed the world, not a message that catered to our whims and fancies and self-indulgence.

 

People are transformed by the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ, not by Christian entertainment, therapy, sociology, or an appeal to their superficial needs.

 

“After that bitter and blessed experience I think the words my and mine never again had the same meaning for Abraham. The sense of possession which they connote was gone from his heart. Things had been cast out forever. They had now become external to the man” (pages 27 – 28).

 

“We are often hindered from giving up our treasures to the Lord out of fear for their safety. This is especially true when those treasures are loved relatives and friends. But we need have no such fears. Our Lord came not to destroy but to save. Everything is safe which we commit to Him, and nothing is really safe which is not so committed” (page 28).

 

Can we trust Jesus and our Father with our obedience?

 

Are there things or people in our hearts and souls upon which we have hung signs that say to God, “Hands off! Do not touch!”?

 

 

The Pursuit of God by Tozer - Reflections (14)

 

Now we come to a section of the chapter, The Blessedness of Possessing Nothing, that shocked me and made me ashamed when I read it. It also brought me back to my previous reflection on how things have changed in the professing church in the seventy-seven years since Tozer wrote The Pursuit of God.

 

“Abraham was old when Isaac was born, old enough indeed to have been his grandfather, and the child became at once the delight and idol of his heart. From the moment he first stooped to take the tiny form awkwardly in his arms, he was an eager love slave of his son. God went out of His way to comment on the strength of this affection. And it is not hard to understand. 

"The baby represented everything sacred to his father’s heart: the promises of God, the covenants, the hope of the years and the long messianic dream. As he watched him grow from babyhood to young manhood, the heart of the old man was knit closer and closer with the life of his son, till at last the relationship bordered upon the perilous. It was then that God stepped in to save both father and son from the consequences of an uncleansed love." (Page 24).

 

“Now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Take now you son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.”” (Genesis 22:1 - 2).

 

When I was a young Christian, this passage was often referred to in the things I read, in conversation, and in teaching. My early mentor, George Will, spoke of it often as a central element of the working of the Cross in our lives and in our following Jesus. There was a time, when those who desired to go deeper into Jesus knew that Genesis 22:1 - 2 was a situation they would all face, they knew it was a Way of Life that they were called to - and they taught this Way to others. 

Unlike our own day, they did not teach that our calling is to accumulate things and possessions and to fill our hearts with idols (which can include people, which can include family), but rather that our calling is to follow Jesus and His Way of the Cross, denying ourselves. It was once taught that God alone ought to be in the sanctuary of our souls and hearts, that God alone ought to be worshipped.

 

There are many facets to Genesis 22, for not only do we see Abraham tested, but we also see the Father offering His Son, and the Son being a willing offering from the Father. We also see Isaac becoming the resurrected seed of New Creation, a picture of Christ Jesus, the grain of wheat falling into the ground, dying, and coming forth in much fruit, the Risen Holistic Body of Christ (John 12:20 – 26).

 

I am shocked and ashamed that I have not preached on this passage with this emphasis of God “saving both father and son from the consequences of an uncleansed love,” and have not thought about it for many, many years. Considering that Abraham is our father of faith, and considering that we see the Cross of Christ working within our inner sanctuary in this passage, this is inexcusable.

 

We can make people our idols just as we can make things our idols, and this is something we do not want to hear in our age of self-focus, self-improvement, of Sunday morning gatherings which are often group therapy sessions more than anything. We don’t want to hear that we can make marriage, family, and children idols – even when this is all under the label “Christian.” God, and God alone is to be within our inner sanctuary.

 

“He that loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it” (Matthew 10:37 – 39).

 

This is hardly “seeker sensitive.”

 

Yet, let’s remember that when God fills our inner sanctuary that we lay down our lives for others, including our spouses, our children, our families, our brothers and sisters in Christ, and our neighbors – as our Way of Life. (John 13:34 – 35; 15:12 – 13; 1 John 3:16; Mark 12:31).

 

All love requires cleansing at the Cross, a death and a resurrection in Jesus Christ. And consider that Isaac was a gift from God, Isaac was the fulfillment of a promise, a grand and glorious promise – we can make the promises of God and their fulfillment our idols, we can worship them rather than God.

 

Somewhere Oswald Chambers writes about us using others as an excuse for disobedience. He says that when God commands obedience that we tell Him that if we obey that others won’t understand it, that it will adversely affect others, and that therefore we can’t do what He commands. We think that God does not know the effects of our obedience on others.

 

Surely if anyone could have made this argument with God it was Abraham.

 

Tozer writes, “Possibly not again until One greater than Abraham wrestled in the Garden of Gethsemane did such mortal pain visit a human soul” (page 25).

 

“God let the suffering old man go through with it up to the point where He knew there would be no retreat, and then forbade him to lay a hand upon the boy. To the wondering patriarch He now says in effect, “It’s all right, Abraham. I never intended that you should actually slay the lad. I only wanted to remove him from the temple of your heart that I might remain unchallenged there. I wanted to correct the perversion that existed in your love"” (page 26).

 

While we will pick Abraham and Isaac back up in our next reflection in this series, I will point out two things in closing.

 

The first is that only God knows our inner sanctuary, and I think we must respect this with one another. The principle of the Cross is the same with each of us, but the working of the Cross is individual. My idols are not necessarily your idols, my possessiveness is likely not your possessiveness. Let’s also keep in mind that our idols are often good things and good people, professing Christians generally do not worship overt evil and ugliness – though they can slide into these things. Our idols can be wonderful religious things, as in Abraham’s case, our idols may even be the promises of God and their fulfillment, they may be the very gifts that God has given us.

 

The second thing is that when God’s Word is living within us, it will pierce deeply, even to dividing soul and spirit – penetrating into our inner sanctuary (Hebrews 4:12 – 13). We have become such a superficial and soulish people that we seldom experience the deep working of the Word, and when we do we run from it rather than submit to the Holy Spirit. We simply can’t imagine that God would bring discomfort to us, that He would require anything from us that would lead to the Cross, to our own crucifixion, to us actually experiencing distress in our minds and hearts and souls in order to purify our love and form us into the image of Jesus.

 

We are all about the group hug. God is all about the Cross.

 

How are you experiencing Genesis Chapter 22?

 

Are there Isaacs in my life?

 

In your life?

The Pursuit of God by Tozer - Reflections (13)

 

 

“Our Lord referred to this tyranny of things when He said to His disciples, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake shall find it” (Matt. 16:24-25).

 

“It would seem that there is within each of us an enemy which we tolerate at our peril. Jesus called it “life” and “self,” or as we would say, the self-life. Its chief characteristic is its possessiveness: the words gain and profit suggest this. To allow this enemy to live is, in the end, to lose everything. To repudiate it and give up all for Christ’s sake is to lose nothing at last, but to preserve everything unto life eternal.” (pages 22 – 23).

 

As I ponder what Tozer says, I wonder if I missed this as a pastor and Bible teacher. While I emphasized the intercessory life, while time after time I recited Jesus’ call to take up our cross, deny ourselves, and follow Him, did I fail to make the connection for others that this directly affects our attitude toward possessions? While I did teach about us being stewards of all that God has given us, did I fail to explicitly challenge my people concerning the idolatry of possessions?

 

I have often thought about reading Ron Sider’s, Rich Christians In An Age of Hunger, and then asking the leader of a marketplace ministry about the book. It seemed to me natural that we’d want to introduce successful businesspeople to Sider’s challenge. I was told that if the ministry did that it would lose many of its participants.

 

While I did not press the issue with my friend, our interchange helped convince me that all ministry, including marketplace ministry, must have its nexus in the Cross.

 

I am not sure that we would have lost folks if we had presented Sider’s book, after all, the men and women we were serving were professing Christians and the very reason we were connected to them was because they wanted to go deeper with Jesus.

 

Yet, I also recall a response to some Bible teaching of mine (I don’t recall the specific teaching), some people were concerned that I was saying they couldn’t seek profits and wealth and possessions – in other words, they wanted to avoid the Cross working these things out in their lives, they wanted easy answers and they weren’t getting them from me.

 

It is good to remind ourselves that we ought to desire God to reveal our hearts to us and that we ought not to judge others, we can’t really know the hearts of others. For that matter, we can’t really know our own hearts, which is why we must seek the Holy Spirit and the Word of God and trust our Father to reveal to us what we need to see, trusting God to give us grace to respond to Him in obedience.

 

A person with many possessions may have God in the shrine of his heart, and the possessions may be external to his soul. A person with few possessions may worship them as idols and may have placed them in the depths of his heart, and God may be on the outside.

 

What we do know is that we live in a society obsessed with possessions. We are obsessed with the stock market, with economic reports, with investments, and with the accumulation of things. We check the financial markets the way a sports fan checks the Super Bowel score – except we do it as a way of life, not one day a year for a few hours.

 

“There can be no doubt that this possessive clinging to things is one of the most harmful habits in life. Because it is so natural, it is rarely recognized for the evil that it is. But its outworkings are tragic” (page 28).

 

Jesus says, “Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions” (Luke 12:15). Jesus then proceeds to tell the story of a rich man planning to build bigger barns to store his increasing harvest. God calls him a “Fool!” Jesus then says, “So is the man who stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:16 – 21).

 

We measure life by money and possessions, and as Tozer says, it is “so natural,” and yet, isn’t it also so foolish?

 

Many churches and church leaders measure themselves by how much money they bring in and by their physical campus. I can’t count the number of times over the years friends and acquaintances have told me how big their capital campaign was, how much their new building cost, how much they spent on a new multimedia system.

 

I recall having lunch with an associate pastor at a church we were attending. Vickie and I had been bombarded with building fund marketing, as had the entire congregation. I said to the pastor, “Since this capital campaign began some months ago, I don’ recall one time we were told by church leadership that this is a result of prayer, or that leadership sensed God was leading them and the congregation in this direction. All we have heard is that consultants recommended we build a new building.”

 

The pastor thought for a few moments and then said, “You are right. This has not been about prayer or our sense of God’s direction.”

 

I guess everyone assumed that the more we had, the more money, the more buildings on campus, the more space, the better off we would be as a congregation. Bigger must be better.

 

Why don’t we speak of our pursuit of God? Why don’t we talk of loving Jesus more today than yesterday? Why don’t we rejoice in the members of our congregations growing in the Word, sharing the Word with one another, sharing the Gospel with those who don’t yet know Jesus, praying for one another, becoming a mature Body of Christ Jesus?

 

“The way to deeper knowledge of God is through the lonely valleys of soul poverty and abnegation of all things. The blessed ones who possess the Kingdom are they who have repudiated every external thing and have rooted from their hearts all sense of possessing…These are the “poor in spirit.”

 

“These blessed poor are no longer slaves to the tyranny of things. They have broken the yoke of the oppressor; and this they have done not by fighting but by surrendering. Though free from all sense of possessing, they yet possess all things. “Theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”” (page 23).

 

To teach such things today seems impossible in our nation and in our churches. For pastors it would be a sure way to lose your job.

 

This is a result of us making conversion mechanical (as Tozer has pointed out) and of our failure to make disciples in obedience to the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18 – 20). Instead of asking people to “receive Jesus,” we are to call people to Jesus as Jesus calls people to Himself, “If anyone desires to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the Gospel’s will save it” (see Mark 8:34 – 38).

 

As Tozer writes, the root of possessiveness is the self-centered life, the selfish soul which is as a black hole, pulling all things into its dense self-centered gravity. Arguments, broken relationships, anger, emotional and mental problems, divorce, wars, fraud, the list of the poison fruit of the “self” and possessiveness is endless – when we make ourselves gods we make the world hell.

 

We are drunk with the hemlock of profit and gain and consumption and we can’t get enough, perhaps we should take a good look at Revelation Chapter 18 and see that we are not only fools, but that we are dancing with demons.

 

What have we done with our lives? With our marriages and families? With our churches? With our nation? With our world?

 

Might not the fact that what Tozer says is so foreign to our experience, that it is so impractical, that it seems like it is from another world, indicate how far we have departed from the Gospel and the Word of God and the Cross of Jesus Christ?

 

Well, for sure it is from another world, it is from heaven. Since we are to be citizens of heaven (Phil. 3:20), perhaps we ought to pay attention to it.

 

Tozer has more to show us in the blessedness of possessing nothing, there is more to come, including a way out of our dilemma.

 

O dear friends, let us remember that life is about knowing Jesus, loving Him more today than yesterday, and being the Presence of Christ to those around us. As Jesus laid down His life, we are to lay down our lives for others. What a blessed calling, and what a glorious future obedience to this calling assures us.

 

“Yet not I, but Christ,” (Galatians 2:20).

 

Shall this be our testimony today?

The Pursuit of God by Tozer - Reflections (12)

Chapter Two – The Blessedness of Possessing Nothing

 

“Before the Lord God made man upon the earth He first prepared for him a world of useful and pleasant things for his sustenance and delight. In the Genesis account of the creation these are called simply “things.” They were made for man’s use, but they were always meant to be external to the man and subservient to him. In the deep heart of the man was a shrine where none but God was worthy to come. Within him was God; without, a thousand gifts which God had showered upon him. [Italics mine.]

 

“But sin has introduced complications and has made those very gifts of God a potential source of ruin to the soul.

 

“Our woes began when God was forced out of His central shrine and things were allowed to enter. Within the human heart things have taken over.” [Italics mine]. (Pages 21 – 22).

 

Why does Tozer decide that we must deal with the “blessedness of possessing nothing” so early in our pursuit of God? If he thought this important 77 years ago, what might he think today?

 

“There is within the human heart a tough, fibrous root of fallen life whose nature is to possess, always to possess…The roots of our hearts have grown down into things, and we dare not pull up one rootlet lest we die…God’s gifts now take the place of God, and the whole course of nature is upset by the monstrous substitution” (page 22).

 

As I read this chapter once again, I wonder if I have ever truly read it; I wonder if I have ever truly seen it; I wonder if I am even seeing it now.

 

The first extended teaching that Jesus gave is what we call the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapters 5 – 7. This is the first extended Word from God on earth, speaking not just to a crowd 2,000 years ago, but speaking to all humanity for all time, and speaking to you and me in our time. Instead of speaking in a cloud on Mount Sinai, God has come down to speak plainly to us on earth; we see His face, we hear His Voice…or do we?

 

For in God’s first message to us on earth, he says many things which ought to unnerve us and shake our souls and perspectives…but do they?

 

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:19 – 21).

 

How do we respond to these words from God?  Make no mistake, Jesus is God (John 1:1 – 18). Where is our treasure? Where is our heart?

 

Are things which were meant to be external to us now living within us? Do we now serve things which were meant to serve us? What inhabits the shrine of our heart?

 

I have asked over the years whether a fish knows that it lives in an aquarium, and I wonder if we realize that we live in a prison of consumption and possession. We have been trained from childhood to consume and to possess, to acquire; we are all engaged in a game of Monopoly in one form or another.

 

Money, money, money is our arbiter; money is our national policy, money forms our international relations, money and possessions form our lives and the lives of our families, and money and possessions form much of the professing church. Can we not “see” that we are living in the system portrayed in Revelation Chapter 18? Does a fish know that it lives in an aquarium?

 

What do people talk about? They talk about possessions and money. How do we vote? We vote our pocketbooks. When grandparents talk to me about their grandchildren, what do they talk about? Their financial success. What is the purpose of education? It is to get a good-paying job.

 

What will our children and grandchildren say to us before the Throne of God when they find out that they’ve wasted their lives in the pursuit of possessions, rather than pursuing God? Will they say, “Why didn’t you tell us?”

 

What will congregations say to their pastors? “Why didn’t you tell us what Jesus said? Why didn’t you challenge us with the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ? Why did you countenance and encourage our pursuit of possessions when we should have been making ourselves God’s possession?”

 

Then we have the Satanic teaching called the “Prosperity Gospel.” While its tentacles have reached into most churches, in its blatant form it is the whore of Revelation 18 parading herself within the professing church and its institutions. The whore has no need to seduce, she intoxicates with promises of health and wealth and “blessing” – and in one sense her sin is her openness, she does not care about decorum. The fact is that many of us will go along with the intoxication as long as it operates within certain social norms – we must not tear away our facades.

 

Do we realize that our economic and social and political system depends on our worship and consumption and possession of things?

 

Well, the good news is that there is a way out of all of this, and Tozer will lead us through it before we conclude the chapter, but I wonder if we will be able to hear what he says and see what he writes.

 

My sense is that we ought not to say, “Have things taken possession of my heart? Have they entered into the shrine of my soul?”

 

Instead, perhaps we should ask, “How have things taken possession of my heart? How have things entered into the shrine of my soul?”

 

Making ourselves the exception, making our church the exception, is probably the dumbest thing we can do.

 

Let’s recall, that “one man’s junk is another man’s treasure” means that what takes root in my heart may not be what takes root in your heart. What I serve may not be what you serve.

 

What things are inside me that ought to be outside me?

 

 Is God, and God alone, with love for others, exclusively living inside me? (Mark 12:29 – 31).

 

Am I God’s possession?

 

What about you?

 

 

The Pursuit of God by Tozer - Reflections (11)

 

 

“We need not fear that in seeking God only we may narrow our lives or restrict the motions of our expanding hearts. The opposite is true. We can well afford to make God our All, to concentrate, to sacrifice the many [things, whether religious or otherwise] for the One” (page 18).

 

“The man who has God for his treasure has all things in One. Many ordinary treasures may be denied him, or if he is allowed to have them, the enjoyment of them will be so tempered that they will never be necessary to his happiness. Or if he must see them go, one after one, he will scarcely feel a sense of loss, for having the Source of all things he has in One all satisfaction, all pleasure, all delight. Whatever he may lose he has actually lost nothing, for he now has it all in One, and he has it purely, legitimately and forever” (pp. 19 – 20).

 

In Tozer’s time, there were men and women still preaching and teaching Jesus, I am not sure about our own time. I’m not saying there are none, but I am saying that they are harder to find. As Tozer pointed out, we seem to be seeking Jesus and, God and, the Holy Spirit and. God alone is not enough. We are such products of this thinking and practice, we have grown up in it, that we don’t know what we don’t know, we don’t know what it is to seek Jesus and only Jesus.

 

We are so embedded in this way of life, that to threaten it is to threaten our existence, our identity, our movements, our organizations, the core of our beings – it is to suggest that we have brought idols into the Temple, and since the idols are our livelihood – our religious and emotional and psychological and financial currency - what shall we do?

 

We think that if we make Jesus our only desire that we will have nothing, yet Tozer tells us that we will have all things. What do we believe? Do we believe this is possible?

 

Is it worth the risk to try? To try only Jesus?

 

Let’s remind ourselves that we are not speaking of bad things, but of good things, of moral things, of ethical things. Yes, they can be self-centered things, and at their core I suppose they are; but there could be worse things…or could there?

 

Let’s also recall Tozer’s warning that the Bible is not an end in itself but a means by which we may know God intimately. We can know the Bible and not know God.

 

Let’s remember, that we are talking about knowing God as a Person, as a person knows a person; progressively, revealingly, deeply; so that we know and sense His desires, His joys, His sorrows, His love, His holiness, His justice, His mercy, His grace, His very Personhood, and character. Are we seeing the face of God?

 

Are we making Jesus Christ our All in all? Are we pursuing Him with all that we have and all that we are?

 

“The man who has God for his treasure has all things in One…Having the Source of all things he has in One all satisfaction, all pleasure, all delight. Whatever he may lose he has actually lost nothing, for he now has it all in One.”

 

Perhaps we could ask, “What music are we playing?” What is the keynote of our message, our demeanor, our practice, our gatherings, our conversation throughout the week, our lives at work, at school, at play, in the civic arena, in entertainment, with our neighbors?

 

I cannot, I must not, depart from Mark 8:34 – 38, Jesus calls me to deny myself, to lose my life, to take up my cross, and to follow Him…always and forever Him. My heart is to be wedded to Him; not to a tradition, a group of doctrinal distinctives, a way of worship or music or preaching or experience or economic or political agenda or exegesis or self – help or sociology; I am to be wedded to Jesus with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength – He is to be the total source of my life, forever and always.

 

In Jesus Christ are “hidden ALL the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3). I am to be always “Looking unto Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of my faith” (Hebrews 12:2).

 

While Mark 8:34 – 38 has been a foundational passage for me since my early weeks as a Christian, there have been others, one is Psalm 73:25 and another 1 Corinthians 1:30 – 31.

 

There are, I think, two types of Christians, those who know and live by Psalm 73:25 and those who don’t. (Yes, there are other passages that express the same sentiment, such as John 6:68. What similar passages do you know? Not “know” intellectually, but “know” as your way of life?)

 

“Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth” (Psalm 73:25).

 

This verse, this declaration, this cry of the heart, was a core theme in my early Christian reading, for the people I read, Andrew Murray, A. W. Tozer, Oswald Chambers, Watchman Nee, and others, desired Jesus and only Jesus. Later writers continued that pursuit of God, they added to the theme of “seeing only Jesus” (Matthew 17:8).

 

To be sure I have had my seasons of “Jesus and,” to be sure I have had seasons of sin; but Psalm 73:25 and its companions has pulled me back to Jesus, I have never outrun its cords (by God’s mercy!) The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin – this is a promise to the Christian, to the child of God (1 John 1:5 – 2:2). I know what it is to eat swine’s food, and I know what it is to return to the Father’s House and fall into His embrace.

 

Nothing can take the place of God’s embrace in Jesus Christ.

 

“But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, ‘Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord’” (1 Corinthians 1:30 – 31).

 

This is, I suppose, the sum of all true Christian theology, and without it there is no true north. If you have graduated from seminary and do not know this, get your money back. If you have been “attending” church and do not know this, ask your pastor why you do not know it.

 

I was taught this by my friend George Will when I was a lad, a dumb lad, a stupid lad, a self-centered lad. I heard this from George when I was 16 years old, and I continued to hear it from him until I was into my 60s, in which season he went into the Presence of Jesus. George was teaching me all that I ever really needed to know, and I was too dumb for much of my life to realize it.

 

Let us not glory is our doctrinal distinctives, in our traditions, in our worldviews, in our spiritual experiences, in our insights into social dynamics, in our nationalism, in our methods of worship, in our attendance numbers (nor be discouraged by them), in our exegetical methods…let us glory in Jesus and only in Jesus.

 

Why O why do we insist on exchanging our glory in Jesus for oxen that eat grass, why do we reject our identity in Him and His inheritance in us? (Psalm 106:19 – 21).

 

Is Jesus our treasure? For where our treasure is, there our hearts will be also (Matthew 6:21).

 

Is Jesus our All in all?

 

Is He mine?

 

Is He yours?

 

Will Psalm 73:25 and 1 Corinthians 1:30 – 31 become your way of life?  

 

Will you pursue God today?